Doesn't get much better than this!

Every night since we have been in Marathon we have been blessed with a beautiful sunset.  Often we jump in the dinghies and head just outside the marina to the open water, drop the little dinghy anchor and watch the sky turn every shade of orange, pink, or purple imaginable!  Thank you God for sunsets!  On this particular night we were with Marc and Michele and Greg and Donna.  We each had an adult beverage and Marc had bought a conch shell and learned to blow it sounding the sunset!  I was impressed and decided I needed to have one for the anchor outs at the rollers back home.  I will have to have a lesson before we get home.

We visited the Dolphin research center where they conduct research on dolphins and sea lions.  I could watch those dolphins all day long!  They are so entertaining and smart!  So much was going on when we were there.  They were conducting dolphin encounters where folks would get in and swim with them, they were doing more training work with other dolphins and of course the nurse in me was impressed with this trainer obtaining a fecal sample from Louie, the youngest dolphin at the center!

As we left the dolphin center we saw that the water out on the reef appeared flat so we quickly put on our swimming suits, untied the 20BUCK$ and headed back out for another afternoon of snorkeling on Sombrero reef!  Marc’s Ark showed up so we snorkeled over to say hi and meet Nate and Emily, their two kids who are down visiting for a week!  Didn’t bring my camera when we were swimming over to their boat because it was quite a long swim.  What was I thinking????  First a 5’ nurse shark swam below me and then on the way back to our boat a huge sting ray was laying in the sand!  Note to self.....don’t leave your camera on the boat!

In preparation for our leaving Marathon next week we attended a session on Florida to Norfolk, VA and then one of our Burdine neighbors gave us their favorite anchorages for the North Channel in Canada.  We are excited to get going again but have loved our time in Marathon!

Last night we attended the third annual Sunset Celebration for all loopers hanging out in Marathon.  There were 120 of us!  I can’t believe how many folks are doing or have done this wonderful trip!    The celebration was held at Banana Bay resort pavilion!  Such a fun time!  We saw folks we had met elsewhere along the loop and some people we hadn’t met came up to us and said, “we are following your blog!”  It is really quite a community!

Our plan is to leave Marathon on March 4th and begin our journey north!  We will spend some time over the next week studying charts again so we are sure we know where we are going.  Marcs Ark will be heading out with us and we are thrilled to travel with them again for however long it lasts!  Such good friends!  I will close with one more sunset picture!  Haven’t seen the green flash yet but each one is so beautiful!!!

Getting Keys disease in Marathon!  Pat

Snorkeling on Sombrero Reef!

Here she is, 20BUCK$ tied to a mooring ball on Sombrero Reef!  If you remember last time my under water camera lacked working batteries so I couldn’t get a picture of her moored for snorkeling.  I know my dive friends are loving the dive flag!!!  State law in Florida requires you fly a dive flag whether snorkeling or diving!  It is once again a beautiful day in Marathon, temperatures in the 80’s and a nice breeze.  When you look out at the ocean, it looks like relatively calm seas but once on the mooring ball we were bouncing up and down quite a bit!

The water was warm and the visibility was clear!   Greg from “Lady in Red” went with us this time.  Donna stayed back to wait for friends who were coming to visit from NC.  We had a wonderful time and I was able to get some pretty good pictures.  These our especially posted for our friend Phil who loves snorkeling!  Enjoy!

This little turtle swam with us for the longest time!  He surfaced, hung out on the surface right next to Ken, then dove back down!   It was almost like he was posing for photos!

The waters were full of many different fish.  Some in the pictures are yellow tails, parrot fish but we also saw file fish, angel fish, barracuda, butterfly fish, trunk fish etc.  The picture below is a parrot fish!

Soon it was time to swim back to the boat and head back to the marina.  What a wonderful day!

We hope to get back out again before we leave here.  We have to watch the weather and make sure it isn’t too rough!  Each day we check the wind and the wave height and if all is good we cast off for a day of swimming with the fishies! 

Thanks for coming along!  Pat  

Almost better than sex!

After our day in Key West, I thought we were headed back to Marathon when we pulled out of the parking ramp, but Pat & Michele were intently looking at the Key West map, and directing Marc to drive to Petronia Street. We pulled over and parked, and started walking down the street.

“Where are we going??” I asked. Pat just said - “Trust me - it’s a surprise!”

Turns out we were heading for “Better Than Sex”!!!

When we entered, our waitress, Kelly, lead us to our table, and presented me with a gift certificate from our friends Greg & Becky. Greg and Becky are long time friends, and Greg is our financial planner. He and Becky came to our Looper party in Red Wing the day before we left on the trip, and  sent us off with a very nice bottle of wine!

Now they researched a venue in Key West, and gave us a great dessert evening!!

Kelly did a very good job explaining the concept and menu at Better Than Sex. They are a dessert only restaurant. Their specialty is chocolate rimmed wine glasses served with Cabernet, and they have a large variety of decadent deserts. Kelly was quick to point out the Muscato served in a white chocolate rimmed champagne flute named after her - “Kelly's’ Klimax”!

I chose a vanilla creme custard served with with cracked burnt sugar pieces, and drizzled with  with warm soft caramel! UUUMMMM _ UUUUMMM GOOD! But of course I had to share the “Team Cream” with the others!!

Pat had the warm chocolate chip cookie, served with pecans, vanilla bean ice cream, and loaded with ooey gooey goodness. This “Cookie Nookie Pie” was to die for! And we all had a taste!

Michele ordered the “Peanut Butter Perversion”, which was a peanut butter silk pie on top of a chocolate chip cookie dough crust. Wasn’t long before we all dove into it!

Marc had a layered crepe torte with banana chunks, caramel and cinnamon with white chocolate ganache, along with sweet sour creme. He tried to fend the rest of us off, but we all had a taste of the “Banana Bazooka”.

The Chef even wrote a sweet chocolate message on one of the chargers!  What a way to end an absolutely perfect day in Key West.

Thank You So Much Greg & Becky - it was ALMOST better than sex!

Captn Ken

Key West!

Yesterday we headed for Key West with Marc and Michele from Marcs Ark.  But before I tell you about Key West, let me share a couple pictures of the day before! 

We headed out once again to the Sombrero Light/Reef!  This time we were on 20BUCK$ and it was our first experience tying up to a mooring ball.  I have watched many a dive boat get tied up to a mooring ball so I figured it couldn’t be too hard.  Ken did a great job of getting me close and all I had to do was snag the rope that lies on top of the water with a boat hook and loop our line through it and tie it off.  Mmmmmmm....not so easy!  It was a little bumpy but third time was a charm and 20BUCK$ was secured!  

It was a beautiful day and the water was crystal clear.  I took some great underwater photos only to find out that my battery was weak so when I turned on my camera to review them, alas the camera was empty.  Ken was host to us three women,  Donna (Greg was fishing) and Michele (Marc was golfing).

We had no sooner returned to the dock and our neighbor called us out to the dock.  Look who had come up to get a drink of fresh water.   John was washing his dog and water was running off the dock. Manatees love fresh water so it came up to get a drink!   Thought I would show you Bonnie too, the cutest little dog next door.

OK, now we are headed to Key West!  I had never been to Key West so all the sights and sounds were so fun for me. Duval Street is where it’s all happening!  Reminded me of Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Our first stop was none other than Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville for a cheeseburger in paradise!  These are friends of Marc and Michele’s from home that came to Key West on the ferry from Naples!  We so enjoyed meeting Joann and Bill!

Ernest Hemingways house.

If you have read anything about EH, you know that he was quite the womanizer and loved the adult beverages immensely!   Here he is as a young man, quite handsome!   He had 4 wives, his first being Hadley which the book “The Paris Wife” is written about.

Wife #2 Pauline’s uncle built them the house in Key West!   They divorced when he began an affair with who became wife #3, but when Pauline died suddenly at age 56, her will still left the house in Key West to EH!

The base of the fountain below is a urinal from his favorite drinking hole, “Sloppy Joes”.    Next to that is his writing studio where he wrote all his wonderful books!

Next stop was Mel Fisher’s Maritime museum.  In 1622, 28 ships left Havanna for Spain carrying a cargo of silver, gold, pearls, tobacco, etc.  One day into their journey, 9 were blown off course in a hurricane.  The Santa Margerita and the Nuestra Snora de Atocha, the flagship were lost at sea with 550 people aboard and a cargo worth an estimated 200 million!

In 1969, Mel Fisher and a crew of divers began searching for the sunken ships.  The Margerita was found in 1980 but it wasn’t until 1985 that the Atocha and her mother lode were found! 

Now it is on to Mallory square where the sunset celebration happens every night.  Vendor booths and outdoor theater acts fill the square to entertain visitors while they wait for the sunset!

The guy on the high wire has been performing in Key West nightly for 37 years!  What a character!  

Drum roll please.  Here it is the much awaited sunset in Key West!  It was beautiful and it was a great day!  Our feet were sore from all the walking we did!  We were tired and ready for the day to end!   But end it did not!  Keep reading!

The day finally ended with something “Better than Sex”!  Ken will have to tell you about that!  You can then decide if it truly is better than sex!!!!!   Pat

Pigeon Key!

Henry Flagler was a wealthy oil tycoon who took an interest in developing resorts and railroads in southern Florida. He developed resorts in St Augustine, Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach, Palm Beach, and also became known as the Father of Miami.

By 1904, his railroad had reached Homestead, south of Miami.

In 1905, when the US announced the building of the Panama Canal, Flagler immediately became interested in linking Key West to the mainland of southern Florida.

Key West was the closest deep water port to the Canal, and could take advantage of Cuban and Latin American trade, and would allow significant trade possibilities with the west.

In the photo above, Flagler’s overseas railroad is pictured on the right.

The bridge to the left is the newer auto bridge, built in the 1990’s. Both spans you see are the beginning of the “7 mile bridge” from Marathon to Little Duck Key in the lower keys. This 7 mile bridge is the longest overwater span of the overseas highway, which is 127.5 miles long, and links mainland Florida to Key West. 

Pat and I had rented bikes to get around on for a few days, so decided to ride out to Pigeon Key, across three miles of Flagler’s old railroad bridge which still connected Pigeon Key with Marathon.

Pigeon Key was one of many work camps for Flagler’s crews, who built the 127.5 mile overseas railroad to Key West.  

Pictured above is Pigeon Key as seen from the bridge. I would estimate this island to be about 30 acres. On it, 450 railroad workers and their families were housed, fed, and materials delivered and stored. As the railroad was built further westward, the trains would transport material and supplies from mainland southern Florida across the completed sections, to various work camps such as this. We were told that the employees all liked Flagler, and worked hard for him. The initial 7 year construction schedule was completed in just 4 years. As Flagler was aging, all of the employees wanted him to be able to ride the first train from southern Florida mainland to Key West. The work crews all united in this “marathon” 24 hour a day work schedule, and in 1912, Flagler rode the first train into Key West.

We were told that this is where the town of Marathon got its name. Marathon is actually on Vaca Key, just 3 miles east of Pigeon Key. 

Most of the original buildings remain, and have been restored. After construction was completed, the barracks were torn down, and better quarters erected for the painters, mechanics, and swing bridge tenders who remained.

The photo above was taken from Pigeon Key, looking up at Flagler’s railroad bridge, as it exists today.

The original bridge / overseas railroad was just the 8’ wide blue steel gussets with steel train tracks laid on top. The concrete road bed on top was added in the late 1930’s, after the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 washed out a 40 mile section of land based railroad bed at Islamorada. As the overseas railroad had never made a profit for Flagler, he sold the right of way to the State, and they turned it into an auto highway by adding the concrete road deck.

In the early 1990’s, an entire new bridge system was built alongside Flagler’s bridge.

Sections of Flagler’s original bridge are still used as bike ways and fishing piers.

Pigeon Key now operates as a non profit  marine educational center for young students in the 8th to 12th grades. They come from all over the country to participate.  

On our ride back, we saw Tow Boat US towing one boat in, and another it appears they did not get to in time.

That evening we biked over to the Sunset Grill for a Valentines dinner with our friends Marc & Michele from Marcs Ark, and another sunset! We never tire of the sunsets in paradise!

Tune in later, and Pat will tell you about our snorkel trip to Sombrero Reef, and our day in Key West.

Captn Ken